President's Day Weekend, not that busy after all,,,
How does cave diving keep getting better?
This past President’s Day weekend, I was lucky enough to spend my three days off diving Saturday and Monday at Peacock with a day at Hart sandwiched in between.
(The following is an unsolicited endorsement)
Leaving Friday night, I arrived at the CaveDiversInn
http://www.cavediversinn.com/Cave_Di...n/Welcome.html
to get a good night sleep before heading to the water on Saturday. I simply hate to mention how wonderful this gem in the rough truly is as I'd like to keep it for myself :smt102. Absolutely all the amenities of home and in fine condition. This is not a diver’s flop house and I really appreciated Dona opening up her place for us to stay. One of the top three places I have ever stayed while in Cave Country.
Now back to the report. Tom, Clay and I got a reasonably early start on Saturday and went to Cow. I was concerned with this being a “popular weekend”, it might be a bit crowded. We saw nobody else at or in the spring. I appreciate this dive more and more as my familiarity and awareness of the dive’s offerings continues to expand. As we continue our journeys into Cow Spring, we are able to advance a little further each time. This time we turned a bit after P. 1700. During a very relaxed float out I notice several jumps and passages that will simply have to wait for another visit. Dive time was about 130 minutes that seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. The vis was outstanding.
For the second dive, Clay and I planned a swim up the Peanut line at P1. As we geared up, we ran in TJ with a group under his wing and they were headed in for some drills. TJ said not to worry, if we ran into each other, no big deal. My thoughts exactly, I remembered drills in the Peanut tunnel. I remember watching the experienced divers swimming by so effortlessly. Turns out, we never saw another diver during that dive and just enjoyed a super relaxing swim to the end of the peanut line. No chance to display the effortlessness that had been free displayed to me though. Oddly enough we did not see another sole in the system. The vis was maybe 20 feet in the front but opened up to 50-60ish further in
Day two, up and at ‘em early for a drive to Hart. President’s Day weekend, might be busy there right? Not. The guest book had not had a sign-in in over a month.
I was registered there, but it was Clay’s first time and with no guide, we’d be entering at little Hart. Checking in was a breeze with Faye’s hospitality we felt as though we belonged there. I we swung by the Black Lagoon (BL) after check-in for a peek, and it was black. I did see fresh braided nylon line. Installed for the workshop I guess? It seemed to offer a little more comfort than the previous incarnation.
My only previous dive here we entered and exited through the BL. I was having an equipment issue and decided it would be prudent to exit at BL instead of exiting through Little Hart.
On over to Little Hart, where we geared up and prepared to set off on our adventure. This was going to be new for both of us and as a result was even a bit exciting. Dropping into the cavern was like a miniature Devil’s Ear. Then it was soon like Little River, and the changes simply kept coming. Man does this cave have many faces !!! After a while we came across a nice piece of white braided nylon descending from above. Looked a bit familiar (Nice tie off job) . Onward we swam enjoying the ever-changing personalities. We made it a fair bit, but not to the really cool thing. The dive time was a bit over two and a half hours that seemed more like thirty minutes. Thank goodness for properly functioning plumbing! The vis was awesome 70+.
We had some great BBQ at the Rock Bluff Diner next to the inspection station on the way back to Luraville, then dropped our tanks off to be filled for the following day.
High fives were in order and a theme was really beginning to take hold for the weekend.
Monday, back to P1 and a journey towards the Crypt was on tap. As we geared up and entered the water, the first downer of the weekend raised its ugly head. Clay’s set of doubles only had 2600 in them. Short fill? Valve cracked open? Doesn’t really make any difference. Not much to do but give him a thorough bubble check and dive on! Dropping the O2 bottles we set off up the mainline using our stage bottles. The plan was to go main line, through Olsen, jump to the right, then to the left and up into the Crypt.
Given Clay’s gas situation we decided to simply go in that direction and turn when appropriate. We swam up and through Olsen, went back down and made the jump to the right. A bit on the dusty side in here as I guess there is not a lot of traffic. We wound our way through the dark cave and eventually approached the jump to the left. I pulled out a spool and spotted it with my light pausing for Clay to see it. The slow horizontal sweep of his light back and forth was all the answer I needed. We exchanged thumbs, I returned the spool to my backside and we turned to exit. Once again, a most enjoyable exit, and no other divers to be seen. Vis was pretty good further in 50-60ish a bit less at the front.
All our dives had several things in common this past weekend. We had the caves virtually to ourselves. There was not a missed line placement, a fumbled spool, or a wrong turn. The dives were executed just as they were planned. Even the dive with the gas shortage was very enjoyable and was executed smoothly.
As mental maps of these caves come into focus, I am looking forward to some side trips into some of the side passages, but that will need to be in my plan. Really enjoying my baby steps.
